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Bleach – Our Reliance On It Is A Mistaken Belief; Part3

by: David Andrew Smith

From the first two articles it has hopefully become obvious that bleach does exactly that. It bleaches coloured pigments so they are transparent. It doesn’t clean by removing. I was trying to explain this to my son-in-law who said he swore by bleach and used it for many things. Only that morning he said he had used it to clean the tannin from stained teaspoons. Again I attempted to explain that the tannin was still there it had just been bleached so he couldn’t see it. His answer was I cannot see it so it has gone and the spoons are nice and shiny once again.. Defeated yet again by the power of bleach!

Having thought about this for some little time now perhaps I should reconsider my quest to re-educate people about the use of bleach. The power of what people perceive to be true using their sight and smell is too great to overcome. On top of that I myself have succumbed to the power of bleach. One of my cleaners was having quite a lot of trouble removing the tannin stains that had developed on the kitchen worktops of a well used office kitchen. In the end she called me in and said she had tried everything. The stain had embedded itself in the worktop and all remedies had only succeeded in dulling the stain. Not to waste any more time and effort on this particular problem I furnished her with some bleach and a few minutes later the work surfaces were looking ‘as new’. So even in my own world there is a place for bleach!

None the less there are far too many instances of young children drinking bleach that individuals should not simply leave a bottle by the toilet as seen in so many households. Keep it out of reach, preferably in a cupboard that youngsters cannot get into. Secondly never use bleach with any other cleaner. We had an instance quite recently where we had been called into a nursing home to descale all the toilets. Limescale deposits had built up on these toilets over the last 15 years. So a team of six cleaners set to work using phosphoric acid descaler. A few moments later the toilets had to be evacuated by the cleaners as the fumes were overpowering. Without our knowledgethe nursing home cleaners had earlier been round to clean all the toilets and had simply poured bleach around the bowl. Result a very nasty reaction between the bleach and the acid producing toxic fumes. So there is a cautionary tale to take note of. When the manufacturers say do not use with any other cleaning product they actually mean it!

About the author:
David Andrew Smith has been working for many years in the cleaning industry and is the owner of general cleaners and specialists in the cleaning and polishing of natural stone

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